For thousands of years, the artist reigned as the supreme inventor of
things for the future. Everything that was done was done by doing and
not by calculation alone, until the 20th century. The 20th century began
a new breed of designer and technology that propelled this generation
into the fastest intellectualized think-tank ever conceived. This era
grew so fast that the artist found himself all but passed up. Everything
in life became a number and a formula on paper. The "hurry up" era was
running faster than ever and the phrase "time is money" was then coined
and changed our lives forever. In this world, engineers became giants
and walked the earth like an Orson Welles movie conquering everything in
sight. Technology became so advanced that the engineering world became
this monster that needed efficiency to survive. You see, the more
efficient, the faster the production; the faster the production, the
more the money, and so goes the financial cycle that controls the world.
At first glance, you might take this as a negative statement being ready
to be delivered against this great society we live in, but, to the
contrary, this was seen as one of the blessings that could very well
bring the balance back into place.

For years now I have seen this world struggling in the area of
balance. Engineers were throwing down their technical papers like Moses
delivering the tablets. "Here is the new truth", they cried out as the
world became one step closer to efficiency. Look at the size of our new
world, as an example. We have computers the size of a hand and
amplifiers weighing less than a pound delivering hundreds of watts -
unbelievable. Truly, this world has changed and everything in it has
changed as well. Marvels are taking place right in front of our eyes and
we have given ourselves the ability to accept change faster than we ever
have, for we are the pockets of this new world. The faster we catch on
to the times changing before us, the faster the changes can occur in
technology. "Bigger is better" has been reversed, and the signal paths
that now control our world travel on the thinnest of thin wires instead
of the sturdy battleship mentality of the past. "Built like a tank, to
last forever", has been replaced with "light as a feather, for your
convenience."

Here's where I step in. Being an artist, I have had a struggle and
fight of my own on my hands. Artist/designers work from a different set
of values than Engineer/designers. Engineers work in the world of sums
and fundamental values whereas artists work off of the sensitivities of
something that is rarely talked about by many manufactures unless you
are in the acoustical instrument building business, or other business,
where the slightest vibration can alter the results of the performance.
In fact, for years now in the audio business, signal was treated as
something that should be only a fundamental or it was distortion needing
to disappear. I always looked at these people who believe such a
ridiculous notion as being very misinformed. But, without product to
show the proof, because their products were so overbuilt, it seemed like
it would be years before the truth would come out. You see, all
fundamentals of energy (all energy) have always run off of a physical
law call Harmonic Structures of Balance. This, for musicians, has always
been a way of life, but for engineers sticking to the fundamentals only,
well, this was too big of a concept to control so they proclaimed
harmonics as being distortion instead of harmonics being usable and even
critical note forming information. The harmonic structures that form
around and inside of a musical instrument are what make each instrument
sound different from each other. The reality is that no two instruments
sound exactly the same playing the same musical note because of this
structure. Now here's where the story becomes fascinating. For years,
high end audio manufacturers thought that they could some how lock in
the fundamental signal and the harmonics would magically reproduce
themselves as they came out the other end. This defies everything in
musical theory, but an entire industry fell into this pit, "ears first",
and would not be climbing out soon if it were not for the saving grace
of technology itself.

For years, my company has been building musical systems for studios
and home entertainment knowing this truth, but has sat watching this
sonic mistake taking place. I always knew that the time would come when
the big wake up call would happen, but didn't think that it would come
in the way of the need for efficiency. I would have thought that, like
me, designers were just going to hear the problem and seek to correct
it. The further I explored the opening up of the harmonic structures,
the better the systems I designed sounded and the further the gap
between me and high end audio became. It got to the point that I lost my
desire to even show up at the big conventions that showed off the mighty
warships of audio. It started to seem like the light was growing dim
until I took another look, TuneLand, my new audio discussion forum, was
just getting started when I realized that it was time for me to replace
some of my audio front end source components. I hated to let go, but
TuneLand could no longer hear me keep saying that you must search the
eBays and Audiogons of the world for these old very "tunable" electronic
components. I went to my near by Best Buy, mass production box moving
audio store, wearing my frown of defeat to have my eyes completely
opened.

I guess I should explain here, shouldn't I? TuneLand is an online
E-magazine that is all about the art of tuning, from musical instruments
to recording studio and home acoustics to the electronics that play the
music or video. TuneLand shows you how to get the most out of any system
through my method of tuning. We produce over 250 different tuning
devices that you can use to tune in the harmonics of any part of the
signal. Whether it be acoustical, mechanical, or electrical, we can
affect the fundamental dramatically by adjusting the structure of the
harmonics anywhere in the signal path. This sounds absolutely crazy to
the hobbyist who has never heard of such a thing. But as you visit
TuneLand, you will see case after case of people who are getting rid of
their boat anchor type systems and replacing then with minimalist
systems and reaching performance levels much higher that their previous
systems. Now when I say much higher I mean much higher. Read TuneLand
and you will be amazed.

Now that I have explained the "why" and "what for" of why I was in
Best Buy, let me tell you of the eye opening shock that took place. As I
said, I needed to replace 5 or 6 sources, so I went to the DVD/CD player
department and found a host of products at incredible prices. After
going through my usual tapping on the chassis ritual that I use as step
one of the tuning process, I took the whole lot of them home to try.
What I found was something that was completely unexpected. Almost all of
these DVD players outperformed the high end CD front ends. In fact, the
only DVD player that did not perform well was one that used noted
"audiophile" parts inside. I thought, "How could this have happened?"
The mass production industries ship slipped past the high end audio ship
in the middle of the night and no one knew it. The fact is that today's
engineering world is harder at work perhaps more than we think. Even if
this is purely by accident, the door was finally open for me to watch
these two worlds come together. At last, the artist can meet the
engineer. Let me show you how this works.

No one takes the time to tell you about this or maybe it isn't even
clear to the industry of reproducing music as to what is happening here,
but the magic of this is that once you apply this age old technology to
your audio gear or anything electronic, your performance level increases
dramatically. Now, not to turn this into a "how to" class, follow me on
this if you will. As artist meets engineer, you have two different
identities. One is basically based on movement (vibration) and the other
is based on numbers (circuits), or so it seems. In reality, both of
these two worlds have the same function and the same root of how that
function is done. Both the instrument and the electronic component
reproduce sound through one main energy source which is vibration. The
signal that is being reproduced by an instrument is happening through
the movement of vibrating parts. You tune these parts to rearrange the
structure of the harmonics to develop whatever desired results you wish.
For example, when you tighten a string, the sound goes higher; when you
loosen a string, the sound goes lower. Now what happens when you take
this same principle and apply it to an electronic component or a wire or
anything else that is carrying a signal? Yes, you might be shocked at
this point that the electronic signal reacts the same way. You can
affect the harmonic balances of the electronic signal just as you can
affect an acoustical instrument. In fact, if you don't, the chances that
you will be able to put these components into tune with each other will
never happen and the result is the loss of music content. On TuneLand,
we show you how to take your system and literally turn it into a musical
instrument, with remarkable results. Hobbyists are discovering that the
tunable systems in their variably tunable rooms are able the reproduce
life size soundstages of recorded performances. Each listener becomes
both artist and engineer as they tune in the piece of music or movie to
their own personal taste. You can imagine what the first responses of
the engineering societies were as they first heard of this. "This must
be distortion", they said, but one could not measure any distortion
related to the opening up of the harmonics. The music takes on a real
life real size presentation that is much more natural sounding than what
has been presented in the past fifty years. As we began comparing the
sound of low mass components with high mass components, we discovered
yet another phenomenon. The lower the mass and the simpler the design,
the more musical the presentation becomes. The higher the mass and more
parts used to perform a particular function, the less desirable the
music was and the less willing the instruments were to be in tune with
each other.

Could it be possible that we have come to an age of understanding?
How wonderful to be in a world where the artist and the engineer
together can bring us closer to the things we love, like music and
movies. Sure, sometimes these discoveries shake up things a little, but
after the dust starts to settle, we realize that the laws of nature and
the laws of technology don't have to be at war. Instead, the artist and
the engineer should be and will be brought closer together the more our
big world is better understood. One thing that is so amazing about the
human race is that we don't stay stuck in our ruts forever; we are
designed to progress and to find the answers to the mysteries of life.
This is what makes living great. Here, all the time, we thought that the
mass production world was heading in a direction solely to meet the
needs of the many, we found ourselves together again embracing those
things that are excellent and raising our lives to an even higher level.

In my next article,
Tuning - Part 2 (The In-Home Concert), I will be taking this marriage of
artist and engineer and showing you what hobbyists are doing to create
their ultimate home system experiences. if you have any questions about
this article, as always, you can visit
TuneLand and make
yourself at home. I look forward to talking to you again on HomeToys.com
soon. So, for now, enjoy your home toys.

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